Shad knew he had found the place.
The chain outside the broom closet was hanging down, and it looked like someone had opened it before, but the door was tightly closed. Shade tried to pull it, and the thin wooden door immediately opened a crack.
He subconsciously reached for the revolver at his waist, but hesitated and reached for the Rhodes card in his pocket. This was a school after all, and Shade didn't want to make too much noise when he fired. Besides, bullets wouldn't turn, but his Rhodes card could even draw a five-pointed star in the air.
He looked around and took the opportunity when no one was paying attention to him to enter the broom closet. Probably because the mop was often put in without drying, there was a damp smell in the large space inside, and the overall area was about the same as Xia De's cloakroom.
In order to prevent the wall from being Henry Val's secret room, Shad held his breath and tried to slow down his pace.
Without touching the gas switch on the wall, Shade squinted his eyes to see in the darkness, and then watched the blood-red halo disappear straight in front of the deepest wall of the broom closet.
There were shelves in front of the walls on the left and right, and in front of the wall where the red halo disappeared, there were long brooms and mops. The wall where the halo disappeared was the only one without anything on it.
"Is there a secret passage? But where is the mechanism?"
But if there really was a mechanism, it would definitely make a loud noise, so Shade used a simple method:
"Feliana's Witch Light!"
His right palm glowed with golden light, and then like inserting a hot pair of tongs into an ice cube, Shad's right hand inserted into the stone wall in front of him. Just as the front end of his arm touched the ground, he vaguely heard a voice coming from behind.
"very good."
He pulled his arm back, then lay on the wall, pointed his ear at the hole that almost penetrated the stone wall, and listened to the sound below:
"In praise of death..."
It was the sound of prayer, and because of the stone wall, the sound was distorted, so it was impossible to tell who was making it. But at least Shade could tell that the sound came from far behind, not just from the wall.
So, he raised a finger towards the hole and used it to melt through the last part of the wall. He lay at the hole and looked back, confirming that there was a narrow passage behind, and then completely melted out a gap large enough for him to pass through sideways, and then used the Breath of Time to restore the wall to its original state.
"Are there any traces of the elements?"
No.
The two sides of the passage behind the wall were all gray brick walls. Five or six steps forward was an iron door, and the red halo led there, and the voice of prayer also came from there. At the same time, Xia De also smelled a foul smell, which was the smell of the decayed corpse material:
"I hope the scene I'm about to see won't affect my appetite for dinner."
Thinking about Mia, he let the image of the cat lying on the windowsill with its front paws tucked in, basking in the sun and taking a nap, diluting the disgusting image in his mind. Xia De controlled the sound of his footsteps, paid attention to the continuity of the prayer sound, and then approached the iron door.
I put my hand on the door. The key to the door was invalid, which meant that the door was not locked. After confirming that there was still no trace of the element, I closed my eyes and imagined the source of the prayer sound in the space behind the door. I held the cards in my left hand and took out the revolver that I didn't intend to use in my right hand. I opened my eyes, took two steps back and slammed the door open:
"No one is allowed to move!"
He broke open the door and pointed his gun at the young man who was kneeling on the ground and seemed to be praying to the bronze jar in front of him.
He was wearing a black robe, and the bronze pot was suspended in the air by several iron chains. Below it was a small coal stove used for heating in the countryside. The foul smell came from the bronze pot. It seemed that there was a vent here, otherwise he would have been poisoned by gas.
The candles combing the floor were the light source in the secret room. Henry Val stopped praying, stood up silently, and turned to look at the detective holding a gun behind him. The space here was larger than the broom room outside, but there was not much here except Captain Rades lying by the wall, and the bookshelf and desk by the wall.
"You found me?"
he asked, staring at the muzzle of the gun.
Xia De took a look at the bronze jar:
“What are you cooking?”
The young man smiled:
"what you think?"
"You are the one who caused the serial murders in the city?"
"Yes."
He actually admitted it.
"Why? Don't tell you, you have a fiancée in the countryside who is seriously ill or has died, and you want to prolong her life in this way."
Shade looked into the other person's eyes. Henry Val was indeed an ordinary person, and the scene in front of him, which looked like a ritual, did not have any power at all. But the indifference to life and the calm attitude shown by this person made Shade realize that this guy was probably a lunatic.
Come to think of it, the evil deeds he had seen done by the ring warlocks in this world seemed to be less than those done by ordinary people. This was probably because outsiders had seen too little of the world.
"No, no, I won't take this risk for other people's lives."
Henry Val glanced back, toward the boiling pot:
"I'm dying, a brain disease, but I can't die."
"Why?"
"Isn't it obvious? How could someone like me, who was destined to do great things, die so young?"
Xia De thought that the other party was a lunatic, but he didn't expect that he was so shameless.
"So you think that your life is more important than other people's lives? Using other people's lives to extend your life is a valuable thing?"
Xia De asked, and the young man in the black robe looked at him in surprise:
"Oh, you actually understand this
Yes, a month ago, I was introduced to a very magical boy who could accurately predict a person's death method and time. The boy told me that I would die of brain disease in the first snow of this winter. So, I spent a lot of money to buy ancient documents, and after translating them, I got the recipe of this potion that can prolong life. I have always believed that I can control my own destiny. "
"Well... you don't have to go into so much detail."
"No, no, I have been holding these words in for a long time. In the past, I could only express them in my diary. Later, I said them to the corpse that sacrificed its life for me. Now, I can finally say them to the living."
Xia De confirmed that the other party was a madman:
"The Captain's gun is in your hand, right? I presume it's in the sleeve of your robe. Now stretch out your hands and raise them above your head. I'll count to..."
Henry Val pointed his gun at Shad, but Shad, who was well prepared, threw the cards in his left hand out the moment the other party raised his gun.
He did not hold back, and the card in his hand directly cut off the finger that was about to pull the trigger. Because the speed was too fast, Henry Val did not realize that his finger was missing until he pulled the trigger several times but still failed to fire the bullet.
“Ah~”
As soon as he screamed, Xia De, who was walking over, punched him in the face:
"Mind Explosion!"
The power of the mind blast depends on the opponent's mental strength, and the closer the hand is to the opponent's head, the greater the power.
After the blow, Henry Val's head did not explode like a watermelon. Instead, he flew backwards in an instant as if he was hit by a huge dynamic energy shell. The back of his head hit the bronze jar heavily. After a "bang" sound, his body slid softly to the ground and he completely fainted.
Xia De shook his hands in disgust and found that in the candlelight, the other person's eyes, nose, ears and mouth were bleeding. Although he was still breathing, it seemed that he would never wake up again.
"It turns out that the mind blast has such a strong effect when used on ordinary people."
This time, he was really merciless.
"She" chuckled in my ear.
"Anyway, he said he had a diary, so I don't need to ask for more details. And why would I keep a man like him?"
"Shad asked, pulling Captain Rades's pistol out of his hand, and thrusting the hand with the broken fingers into the furnace under the bronze pot. After burning for a while, he pulled the hand out.
This was to confirm whether the other party was really unconscious, and to cover up the injury of his finger being cut off by a sharp weapon. He was also thinking about using the prisoner's body to exchange for the reward.
Finally, she looked at the evil spirit "lying" behind the young man. She became more transparent, and the pale green spirit was dimming little by little:
"You may leave now."
He stared at the soul and said, his right hand drew a vertical line in the air, and then the black mark left by his fingertips expanded into a dark crack. Behind this hole, the extreme cold and the light of the dark moon penetrated, and behind it was the land of death.
Most of the souls of Midhill Castle were sucked away by the narrow space between life and death, so Shade opened the door to true death and allowed this poor man to leave directly.
As if affected by the black wind blowing from the land of death, the pale green light on the evil spirit, which was not strong to begin with, gradually faded.
It gradually recovered its appearance as a normal human female. It lowered its immature face and looked blankly at its hands, then at Henry Val on the ground, and then at the young detective in front of it:
"Thank you."
Bowing slightly to Shade, she transformed into a white light and passed into death.
The hole disappeared, and Shade breathed a sigh of relief:
"Another good thing you did. You can reward yourself and take Mia out to eat something nice tonight."
He was thinking about it and was about to check on the tied-up captain, but suddenly stopped:
"Wait a minute, Henry Val was hit hard by my mind explosion, and the back of his head just hit a heavy object. He will definitely not wake up. Judging from his injuries, he is likely to die of brain death this winter."
so what
"She" was chuckling.
"Although the formula of the potion Henry Val bought was problematic, the so-called 'boy who predicted death' was right. He would indeed die in winter due to a brain disease. But it was not because he was originally ill in the brain, but because he thought he was ill in the brain and killed people indiscriminately, and was therefore... "
Shade narrowed his eyes slightly and accurately predicted the time and method of his own end, but even the magic provided by Priest Augustus could not do it.
"There is actually a prophet who can predict death in Midhill Castle? It seems that I need to pay attention to this matter."
Here is a very interesting idea.
"What?"
"She" chuckled, as if she was opening her lips next to Xia De's ear at this moment:
The other party predicted that Henry Val would die in the first snow of this winter.
"That's right."
Shade looked at the young man slumped over by the stove.
Well, why don't you try it - kill him now.